The present invention relates to a method for raising farm animals (mammals, birds, and fish) by exposing them to toys, and thereby improving their behavioral characteristics, feeding habits, and mortality rates.
Toys are objects which can be utilized by an animal for play. Play in animals has been described as "leaping; jumping; bucking or running when there is no obstacle to overcome, no enemy to flee, or object to obtain; sniffing; licking, pawing and manipulating familiar rather than novel objects; sex without coition; and, fighting in friendly rather than aggressive encounters which avoids injuring or routing the partner." (McFarland, 1981). According to McFarland, there are at least five categories of play activities:
1. Superfluous activity includes prancing, frisking, leaping, gambolling, etc., and has been in observed cattle, horses, sheep, goats, and chicks.
2. Aimless exploration, manipulating, and object play involves the use of novel stimuli and objects which typically elicit approach, touching, mouthing, and other manipulations, providing the animal is not frightened.
3. Practice play is often seen in animals whose movement is still not perfected at birth, and involves the repetition and elaboration of newly acquired and chance actions.
4. Responses to the wrong object are often found in young animals, and comprise innate sterotyped movements to inappropriate objects.
5. Finally, social play is play between young animals, and between the young and their parents. It has been suggested that social play may serve to establish dominance relationships, or to control aggression between group members.
Toys are the objects for animal play, and serve to stimulate other kinds of play or activity. Toys were developed and have been used for many years for pets (for cats, dogs, birds, and aquarium fish). Farm animals, unlike pets and wild animals, however, remain in poor and monotonic environments for the majority of their lives without any objects or toys to stimulate their senses. Since it appears that all animals require a certain amount of play type activity, it would appear to be beneficial to farm animals to enhance or enrich their playing environment. If such an enrichment to their playing environment results in improved behavioral characteristics, feeding habits, and mortality rates, for example, the derived economic benefit can be substantial, especially in a commercial farm environment where large numbers of animals are involved.